hexerey und frohlocken

27 - German Folk Witch, living in Bavaria. Interested in Folklore, Folk Remedies, Mythology and Fairytales

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Incantation Bowls from Mesopotamia, c.300-700 CE: these bowls are lined with Aramaic incantations and drawings that show demons being shackled and subdued; they were often buried beneath houses and cemeteries in an effort to capture malevolent spirits

Bowls like this were once produced as magical amulets in parts of Mesopotamia (in what is now Iraq and Iran). As this article explains:

Thousands of similar incantation bowls, also known as magic bowls, were produced in the area of today’s Iraq between the fifth and eighth centuries. Clients used incantation bowls to protect and heal, to frighten off demons and evil spirits, and, in a few cases, to enlist demons to help secure love or money, or to harm adversaries. In addition to the magical texts, scribes sketched drawings of bound and chained demons – pictorial representations of the spells’ desired effect – on the bottom of about a quarter of the bowls.

Above: this incantation bowl was commissioned by someone named Gia Bar Imma nearly 1,700 years ago, and it features a Jewish Babylonian Aramaic inscription along with a drawing of two demons wrapped in chains

These bowls were created and used by people of many different faiths. They were typically inscribed with Aramaic text, which appeared in one of three different dialects: Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, Mandaic, or Syriac. Incantations that were written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic are, of course, attributed to Jewish communities, but the ones in Mandaic are associated with Gnostic Mandaeans, and the ones in Syriac are typically associated with Christians, Manichaeans, or followers of the ancient Babylonian religion.

Above: this bowl is lined with an Aramaic inscription that invokes "the powers of Enoch, the seven planets, and the twelve signs of the zodiac" to protect the home of a man named Pabak bar Kufithai

There are a few incantation bowls that feature Arabic or Persian inscriptions instead, and those examples tend to have Islamic or Zoroastrian motifs. Some bowls are simply inscribed with gibberish:

The largest number of known incantation bowls are written not in Syriac, but in Jewish Aramaic by Jewish scribes (though not necessarily for Jewish clients). Mandaean bowls are the second most numerous, only then followed by bowls in Syriac. A handful of bowls in Arabic and Persian are also known, in addition to bowls – perhaps 10 per cent – that can only be called ancient forgeries. These latter are filled with scribbles that mimic cursive writing but are not, in fact, in any language at all; perhaps they were made by illiterate scribes preying on equally illiterate clients.

Above: this bowl features a Mandaic inscription

Incantation bowls provide valuable information about Jewish history, in particular:

The prevalence of Jewish Aramaic bowls are what makes these artefacts so important for Jewish history. They provide the sole piece of epigraphic evidence documenting Jewish language and religion at one of the most important times in Jewish history: the period of the composition of the Babylonian Talmud.

Above: researchers believe that the figure in the center of this bowl is a representation of the demon Lilith, whose likeness and/or name appears on many other incantation bowls

This article also notes:

Generally speaking, the incantations could do a number of things: healing fevers and diseases; guarding from sudden death, injustice, and treachery; and exorcising evil spirits. Similar metal talismans were made around the same time and filled largely the same role. Where they differ is that in many instances the bowls called upon deities or angels to ensnare demons. It is believed from drawings on incantation bowls depicting ensnared creatures that the reason that so many have been found upside-down is that they were intended to be traps for careless or curious demons.

Above: this bowl has a Jewish Babylonian Aramaic inscription that includes the phrase "this cat is bound," and it features a drawing of a demonic cat being restrained

More than 2,000 of these bowls are known to exist, but only a fraction of them have been thoroughly studied.

Above: an illustration from another bowl

Above: two incantation bowls with Jewish Babylonian Aramaic text and drawings that show demons being restrained

Sources & More Info:

Aeon: Magic Bowls of Antiquity

Penn Today: The Stories the Bowls Tell

Bowers Museum: To Catch a Demon: Mesopotamian Incantation Bowls

Jewish Quarterly Review: Magic Formulae and Women's History: Authorship, Agency, and Gender in the Aramaic Incantation Bowls

My Jewish Learning: Magic Bowls

The Librarians: Who Wrote these Ancient Jewish Incantation Bowls?

Penn Museum: Hebrew Bowl

Journal of Late Antiquity: Enslaved People and the Demonic in the Sasanian Empire

[inspofromancientworld]

Spinning Plant and Animal Fibers

By Brooklyn Museum - Spindle without Whorl, whole or Spindle with Cotton Yarn, Fragment. Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved on 2019-11-04.Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) license, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83653957

The beginning of twisting fibers from plants or animal coats is difficult to date because they don't fossilize, so we have to rely on trace evidence, such as imprints in mud that did fossilize. We have these of string-like skirts from the Upper Paleolithic that date to about 20,000 years ago. Recent discoveries, though, show that Neanderthals spun cording as well.

Photo of Neanderthal cord from Abri du Maras. M-H. Moncel

The evidence from the Neanderthals was actual fibers that were preserved in a cave in southern France. The fragment was 6mm long and was three bundles of twisted tree fibers twisted together. The most likely usage of the fiber was to be wrapped around a handle of some type or as part of a net bag. This implies many areas of knowledge held by Neanderthals to make the cording including the growth patterns of the trees the fibers came from, spinning, and spinning the resultant thread into a stronger yarn. 'In order to get this fiber, you have to strop the outer bark off a tree to scrape off the innter bark. This is best done in the spring or early summer,' according to Bruce Hardy, co-author of the study of these fibers and professor of anthropology at Kenyon College in Gambler, Ohio.

This spinning was most likely done against the thigh, twisting the fibers as the hand rolls it down the thigh, pinching them, and then bringing them back to the top of the thigh to be twisted more. The product was likely wound around a stick or stone.

By Rama - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0 fr, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49227927

The next step was to spin onto the stick, or spindle, directly, then to create a split or hook in the top of the stick to hold the twisted part on the stick. Exactly when this happened, we don't know, as there are, as yet, no direct remains of this process. What we do have evidence of improved technology is small bone and later metal hooks that replaced the slit or hook cut into wood as well as weights made of stone, wood, metal, clay, or later metal that went on the end of the sticks to keep them spinning longer called spinning whorl. These have been found as early as the Neolithic. The combination of these technological improvements is called the drop spindle and we have artwork depicting spinning from many cultures.

By © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2596494

The other item needed to make spinning easier is an item called a distaff, which would hold a prepared bundle of fibers is loosely wrapped onto, which freed the hand that would have previously held the fiber and allowed a larger quantity of fiber to be held at one time. The distaff could be tucked under the arm or into a loop or holder in a belt. Again, since this didn't fossilize, we don't know when it was developed, though it does appear in Bronze Age artwork.

If you're interested in learning to spin, local independent yarn stores are a good place to start. Other places to look are reenactment guilds, fiber craft guilds, or online for spinning classes. The benefit of guilds is in-person help learning and the benefit of companionship and experience.

[caribbeanangel]

Alice Smeets, The Ghetto Tarot.

[berlynn-wohl]

a marriage of humankind's two greatest design achievements: the illuminated manuscript and the cool S

[cuties-in-codices]

botanical illustrations (aloe, dill, black henbane, rose, apium, mandrake, water lily, meadow sage)

from a manuscript of johann hartlieb’s kräuterbuch (book of herbs), a treatise dealing with the medicinal uses of various plants. this copy was created in northern bavaria, c. 1462

source: Berlin, SBB, Ms. germ. qu. 2021

[slewfootwitch]

𝔞𝔫 𝔢𝔵𝔭𝔩𝔬𝔯𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔬𝔣 𝔩𝔞𝔶𝔪𝔞𝔫'𝔰 𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔯𝔪𝔰 𝔦𝔫 𝔢𝔲𝔯𝔬𝔭𝔢𝔞𝔫 𝔣𝔬𝔩𝔨 𝔪𝔞𝔤𝔦𝔠

“[…] there can be said to exist two types of practitioners—the specialists or wise ones (Sw. klokfolk) and the common persons who are sometimes clients of such specialists, but who can also perform certain procedures on their own, as long as certain ritual prerequisites are met. For this reason, there are some rituals that seem accessible to both the specialist and the common person.” - Dr. Thomas K. Johnson, Svartkonstboker

Notes: This post, like all of my posts, is written from the background of diasporic European folk magic. This post largely deals with historical magic and is not intended as an admonition of purchasing “fixed” or “charged” spell items; nor is it intended to categorize such purchases in contemporary use as layman’s magic or the practitioners who purchase them as non-practitioners.

A large portion of the known body of traditional folk magic is what is known as “service magic”, magic that was bought from skilled practitioners by non-practitioners. In many cases, these services were rendered directly by the practitioner in the form of spells, rituals and remedies. Here, the magic, healing, or other working was performed entirely by the practitioner at the request of a client. This magic, although performed on behalf of a non-practitioner, still falls into the realm of specialist magic because it is performed by a practitioner in its entirety.

On the other side of the spectrum of service craft is “layman’s magic”. This was magic that, despite being purchased from a specialized practitioner, was both easily enough performed by an outsider to the craft and also somewhat reliant on an element of client participation for best results. In layman’s magic, the practitioner lays the groundwork by performing any complex or specialist tasks, and then hands the work to the client for completion. It is the layman’s participation in such magic that activates the working and binds it into its place.

How Did Historical Layman’s Magic Work?

In our modern magical community, we tend to think of magic as something that is exclusively performed by practitioners (or, at the very least, by dabblers). In our world, magic is performed by witches and mages. We can find it packaged up and categorized into clear designations of what can be done by whom, and what qualifications must be met before the performance of certain magics is appropriate. Sometimes it is even further divided into what magic is suitable for beginners vs. advanced practitioners, and so on. Factors like travel and immigration, culture-sharing, the rise of literacy and published materials, and accessibility of information through resources like the Internet have made international and intercultural interaction much more common for the average person. They have also made the development and expression of such categorizations and boundaries necessary for the protection and maintenance of closed practices.

For the early modern practitioner, however, magic was much less divided. A given area or culture would typically only have one or two folk magical traditions living within it. So there was much less of a need for boundaries about who could and could not practice magic in its many forms. Occasionally there were gender-focused rules or rules associated with the circumstances surrounding one’s birth—but even those were flexible and sometimes fluid. If an aspiring cunning person didn’t have access to a willing mentor of the appropriate gender, for example, they could still become a practitioner of magic by stealing or finding a Black Book or by being mentored by spirits directly. Magic was practiced by all genders and ages; it was taken up by both the poor and the wealthy. The only separation that truly seemed to exist in early modern folk magic and folk medicine was the divide between the cunning person/skilled practitioner and the layman.

The layman of the early modern era was different from the non-practitioner that we might come into contact with as contemporary practitioners of magic and witchcraft. In our own day and age, we might assume that every non-practitioner that we encounter is also a non-believer. We know that, as a general rule, Joe Average neither practices nor believes in magic to any significant extent. This wasn’t the case for the historical non-practitioner. Although belief in magic and reliance on both folk magicians and folk healers gradually declined between the 18th and 20th centuries in Europe, belief in magic and spirits was an ingrained fact of life for the majority of human history. Whether a person was able to practice magic or not, they were almost guaranteed to believe in it. Prior to the scientific advancements of the 19th century, anything that altered one’s fate, caused illness, and created misfortune were believed to be the work of unseen spirits, devils and magical afflictions rather than germs, gases, and other mundane causes. Non-practitioners believed in magic and the supernatural, though they also believed that the world of the spirits and control over spirits was inaccessible to them, limited (at least to some extent) to the purview of the skilled practitioner.

Magic was a necessary part of the spiritual landscape of the early modern era and a means of obtaining healing, happiness and control for both skilled practitioners and their clients. The service magic economy created a sort of magical situationship in which the non-practitioner client base could rely on the folk practitioner’s cultivated relationship with their craft, the spirit world, and the land around them to help navigate issues of fate, health, wealth, and livelihood. But they did not always need to rely on the practitioner’s direct action to be the solution to their problems. Sometimes, magic could be prescribed rather than performed on the layperson’s behalf. The same way a doctor with the necessary skills to diagnose illness and the credentials to prescribe medications might assess a sore throat, diagnose it as strep and prescribe an antibiotic, the folk practitioner had the ability to assess problems caused by spirits, devils and other supernatural forces and determine the best course of action for solving them.

Some historical service magic is comparable to the “Etsy witches” of the contemporary age, where the entire magical working is performed by the practitioner with little assistance or action required from the client. Most of the surviving examples of service magic, however, fall into the category of layman’s magic. These include examples of rites in which something was required of the client, such as procuring certain items believed to have innate magical powers, making ritual journeys or nightly repetition of charms and prayers. They also included physical items which were intended to be worn or used by the client, as is the case with many amulets, prayer and charm scrolls (Breverl) that were meant to be sewn into clothes or worn in charm bags, and magical ointments. Such examples of layman’s magic were activated by the practitioner and then sold to the client who could apply or use them for their own purposes. It was not necessary for the practitioner to place the working directly on the client, their home, loved ones, farm, etc. It was enough that the magic had been placed on the amulet, written into the parchment, or otherwise activated.

Layman’s Magic Today

This tradition of service magic is still alive and well today, despite the gradual decline of many people relying on folk practitioners for help with their daily lives. The clientèle, however, has changed with time. In Western culture, many non-practitioners no longer believe in magic and many that do avoid interaction with practitioners and artifacts of magic out of fear or contempt. In my own experience (having both owned a witchcraft shop myself pre-pandemic and having collaborated with other retailers), the vast majority of what would once have been charms, amulets and tools intended for non-practitioners are now purchased by practitioners themselves. Fixed/charged candles, amulets, spell kits and other such tools are no longer considered the domain of the non-practitioner. Instead, they are readily available in witchcraft shops everywhere and (after being created and activated by one practitioner) are worked alone or incorporated into larger workings as magical support/enhancement.

The evolution of these charms in this way is not an end to the tradition of participatory elements of service magic. The use of what would have once been layman’s charms by contemporary magical practitioners is something of a natural continuation of the tradition, which reminds us that such the participation of the client in the workings of service-oriented folk magic was not an odd exception to the rules of folk magical practice. This participation was (and still is) one of the defining features of European service magic. It is also a reminder that such folk magic has always been something done not just for our communities, but with them.

[moth-kissed-witch]

╔.៚. .════════════════════════╗

Culture is More Than Just Ancestral Origins, and Everybody Has Culture and Traditions

╚════════════════════════. .៚.╝

A lot of people, especially in Western countries, underestimate or even ignore their own culture. Many people define culture as being of ancestral origins, and while yes that can be part of culture, culture is overall the sum of how we were raised which imprinted on our values, traditions, norms, beliefs and what we personally consider sacred. The history of where YOU come from.

My mom grew up on the coastline of California, wearing her bikini underneath her school uniform and racing to the beach with her friends right after classes where hundreds of people were out surfing, blasting music from boomboxes, beachcombing, and some even traveling from one end of the coast to another living in vans. That's her personal culture. I grew up at the base of the Applaichan mountains catching frogs in the creeks, tapping trees and collecting sap to make maple syrup from scratch, and hiking the same trails the monarch butterflies use to migrate. That's my personal culture.

Culture is so many things other than just where our ancestors came from or traditions dominated by the major religion or the majority ethnicity of that location. It includes the new and old technology, music, arts, and activities that are cultivated into our everyday lives. The local flora and fauna from the ones we can recognize right away to the rare ones where a sighting becomes the talk of the town. The fashion styles and various trends people follow or the cuisine you can find in almost any restaurant or household. Locational landmarks that anyone in that area could recognize and have gone to from malls to historic buildings to natural structures. The folklore, fairytales, and ghost stories that have been passed down through campfires, saloons, and bars of various towns, cities, and villages through the decades.

It's ways you grew up finding joy and community, how you and the people surrounding you hold celebrations big or small, the aspects of nature you've come to find familiar and at home. Where I was born and raised; The hidden waterfall with a deep enough pool to swim in and room to meditate underneath or behind the waterfall, the farmers markets and other summer events that bring my community together young and old, the preserved buildings and historical structures which people still live in and hold activities at, local folklore, myths, and stories. All of that is just as much of my culture as anywhere else, and as I grow and evolve in my life so too does my culture.

╔.៚. .════════════════════════╗

Kind of a random post for today, but as we go through the more Christian-centered holidays I see the phrase of "it makes me sad I don't have a culture" because so many people's ancestral origins are lost in the modern age. While it's cool to admire the very unique and widespread cultures that belong to other countries, it's important to recognize what culture actually means and ways in which we ALL have cultural aspects and personal traditions. They just become so normalized and localized to us we forget what they are!

╚════════════════════════. .៚.╝

[wievenwitch]

Dutch plant magic

Expect a list of plants that can be useful during this upcoming Autumn, But here is how dutch magic users utilized plants:

One cannot just pluck the plant out of the ground. Certain plants have specific rituals dedicated to using them, but every plant must greeted and be informed of your intent before asking to use some of it, unless you want to anger the spirit inside the plant or steal from Mother Earth.

Nighttime, never daytime. You cannot harvest plants for practice during the day, it must be done at night. The moon will strengthen your goals under the guidance of Hekate.

Connection to Christianity. The bishop Burchard van Worms stated in the 11th century; "Have you plucked medicinal herbs with incantations that are not 'credo' or 'onzevader'? If so, you must fast on water and bread for ten days." Then again, later on in history incantations that have included Christian prayers and holymen had been deemed acceptable.

Sources:

Dutch medieval magick (a source that compiles several sources, and that I think I'll be using regularly)

[tamfana]

Nehalennia

Nehalennia is a Goddess found almost entirely in Zeeland (Netherlands), but she's got a few altars in Cologne, and even the remains of a temple. She's a goddess of the Sea, Travel, Commerce, and possibly another Psychopomp.

The etymology of her name can be interpreted in a few ways. One article I found states that her name may come from the word 'nehal', which means, 'to help.' Some others state that her name would be separated into 'Halen', 'ne', 'ja' meaning 'she who is near the sea.' Both of these interpretations seem pretty apt!

Nehalennia is invoked almost exclusively in all her altars as a "thank you". There are very few instances where she is asked to protect someone before a journey, only ever as a 'Thank you' after the fact. From what we can tell, its quite possible she was invoked during times of crisis, not before.

In her altars, she's seated in an apse (which dispells the idea that she may be an ancestor, as sitting in the apse is reserved for gods alone), with a bowl of apples, grain, or loaves of bread. Sometimes she's pictured with a dog or wolf with her foot on the bough of a ship, which may lead to her position as a psychopomp. The idea of boating into the afterlife comes admittedly from Greek Mythology, but dogs having a connection to the otherworld and magic are consistent in quite a few European Folk Religions. Her dog may also be there to symbolize her protective affinity and loyalty to her people.

It's been suggested that one of her offering meals may also lend to the idea of her being a psychopomp. The duivekater is a bone-shaped loaf of bread served with nutmeg and spices. Then again, this bone could always be in reference to her dog. It originates in North Holland.

Nehalennia is also pretty cool because she's one of the only Goddesses now with a semi-active cult. It is admittedly very small, but there are a few people in the Netherlands today that worship her. In fact, they have a temple in Coljinsplaat!

The history behind this temple is fascinating for a few reasons, in part because the remains of the original temple (which were taken by the ocean) were revealed in a storm when the water washed away some of the dunes.

[charnel-grounds]

“Witches’ Sabbath”

attributed to workshop of Jacques de Gheyn (II), The Hague

engraving, c. 1608–12

source

[windvexer]

The Wise and Subtle Arte of Reading Cards, full document

Ebook - The Wise and Subtle Arte of Reading Cards

Binder Margins - The Wise and Subtle Arte of Reading Cards

Original version as I copy-pasted it from the archive website

Quickref guide, 1 page front and back

If anyone has input on the slur disclaimer, I am open to input and replacing or altering my disclaimer for something more suitable.

If you notice any errors in formatting or other issues, please reach out. I can fix the files. File versions are just dated to help keep track if there are changes.

These documents are here because this information has mostly disappeared from the internet. Save resources you value.

I did not write this document. I did not change its contents beyond mild reorganization and formatting. The original that I worked from is posted so you can compare changes if you would like to.

[danishpagan]

“Hestestenene” or the horse stones.

I’m on vacation and i found these while out hiking along the coast of Bornholm. They are old menhirs, probably dated between late bronze age and early iron age, so they would have been ancient even to the vikings. This was allegedly a holy site to the pagans living here, with local folklore stating that they would sacrifice horses and other animals to the gods here, thereafter throwing of the cliff

[dvoeverie-stitches]

I always find at least one lost treasure during a move. My sister brought this cloisonné rosary back from Rome as a gift for me. It had fallen behind some books.

Cloisonnè is an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects, in recent centuries using vitreous enamel, and in older periods also inlays of cut gemstones, glass, and other materials. The resulting objects can also be called cloisonnè. The decoration is formed by first adding compartments (cloisons in French) to the metal object by soldering or adhering silver or gold wires or thin strips placed on their edges. These remain visible in the finished piece, separating the different compartments of the enamel or inlays, which are often of several colors. Cloisonnè enamel objects are worked on with enamel powder made into a paste, which then needs to be fired in a kiln.

[angelspearlheart]

[cuties-in-codices]

st. gallus and st. magnus with their docile bears

miniatures from the legendary of st. gall, a manuscript containing the lives of the st. gallen local saints gallus, magnus, otmar and wiborada. produced in st. gallen, c. 1451-1460

source: St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 602

[broomsick]

List of interesting ressources pertaining to norse paganism, scandinavian folklore and history, and nordic religions in general

These are sources I have personally used in the context of my research, and which I've enjoyed and found useful. Please don’t mind if I missed this or that ressource, as for this post, I focused solely on my own preferences when it comes to research. I may add on to this list via reblog if other interesting sources come to my mind after this has been posted. Good luck on your research! And as always, my question box is open if you have any questions pertaining to my experiences and thoughts on paganism.

Mythology

The Viking Spirit: An Introduction to Norse Mythology and Religion

Dictionnary of Northern Mythology

The Prose and Poetic Eddas (online)

Grottasöngr: The Song of Grotti (online)

The Poetic Edda: Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes

The Wanderer's Hávamál

The Song of Beowulf

Rauðúlfs Þáttr

The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings (Kevin Crossley-Holland's are my favorite retellings)

Myths of the Norsemen From the Eddas and the Sagas (online) A source that's as old as the world, but still very complete and an interesting read.

The Elder Eddas of Saemung Sigfusson

Pocket Hávamál

Myths of the Pagan North: Gods of the Norsemen

Lore of the Vanir: A Brief Overview of the Vanir Gods

Anglo-Saxon and Norse Poems

Gods of the Ancient Northmen

Gods of the Ancient Northmen (online)

Two Icelandic Stories: Hreiðars Þáttr and Orms Þáttr

Two Icelandic Stories: Hreiðars Þáttr and Orms Þáttr (online)

Sagas

Two Sagas of Mythical Heroes: Hervor and Heidrek & Hrólf Kraki and His Champions (compiling the Hervarar saga ok Heiðreks and the Hrólfs saga kraka)

Icelandic Saga Database (website)

The Saga of the Jómsvíkings

The Heimskringla or the Chronicle of the Kings of Norway (online)

Stories and Ballads of the Far Past: Icelandic and Faroese

Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway

The Saga of the Volsungs: With the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok

The Saga of the Volsungs (online) Interesting analysis, but this is another pretty old source.

The Story of the Volsungs (online) Morris and Magnusson translation

The Vinland Sagas

Hákon the Good's Saga (online)

History of religious practices

The Viking Way: Magic and Mind in Late Iron Age Scandinavia

Nordic Religions in the Viking Age

Agricola and Germania Tacitus' account of religion in nordic countries

Myths and Symbols in Pagan Europe: Early Scandinavian and Celtic Religions

Tacitus on Germany (online)

Scandinavia and the Viking Age

Viking Age Iceland

Landnámabók: Book of the Settlement of Iceland (online)

The Age of the Vikings

Gesta Danorum: The Danish History (Books I-IX)

The Sea Wolves: a History of the Vikings

The Viking World

Guta Lag: The Law of the Gotlanders (online)

The Pre-Christian Religions of the North This is a four-volume series I haven't read yet, but that I wish to acquire soon! It's the next research read I have planned.

Old Norse Folklore: Tradition, Innovation, and Performance in Medieval Scandinavia

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings

The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings by John Haywood

Landnámabók: Viking Settlers and Their Customs in Iceland

Nordic Tales: Folktales from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Denmark For a little literary break from all the serious research! The stories are told in a way that can sometimes get repetitive, but it makes it easier to notice recurring patterns and themes within Scandinavian oral tradition.

Old Norse-Icelandic Literature: A Short Introduction

Saga Form, Oral Prehistory, and the Icelandic Social Context

An Early Meal: A Viking Age Cookbook and Culinary Oddyssey

Runes & Old Norse language

Uppland region runestones and their translations

Viking Language 1: Learn Old Norse, Runes, and Icelandic Sagas and Viking Language 2: The Old Norse Reader

Catalogue of the Manks Crosses with Runic Inscriptions

Old Norse - Old Icelandic: Concise Introduction to the Language of the Sagas

A Companion to Old Norse-Icelandic Literature and Culture

Nordic Runes: Understanding, Casting, and Interpreting the Ancient Viking Oracle 

YouTube channels

Ocean Keltoi

Arith Härger

Old Halfdan

Jackson Crawford

Wolf the Red

Sigurboði Grétarsson

Grimfrost

(Reminder! The channel "The Wisdom of Odin", aka Jacob Toddson, is a known supporter of pseudo scientific theories and of the AFA, a folkist and white-supremacist organization, and he's been known to hold cult-like, dangerous rituals, as well as to use his UPG as truth and to ask for his followers to provide money for his building some kind of "real life viking hall", as supposedly asked to him by Óðinn himself. A source to avoid. But more on that here.)

Websites

The Troth

Northern Tradition Paganism

Norse Mythology for Smart People

Voluspa.org

Icelandic Saga Database

Skaldic Project

Life in Norway This is more of a tourist's ressources, but I find they publish loads of fascinating articles pertaining to Norway's history and its traditions.

[honoringthor]

So just a heads up, northern tradition paganism is run by raven kaldera,Quite a bit of his stuff is Upg. More importantly he's been accuesed of transmisogyny

[deathandmysticism]

Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, 15th century